Revive
by haaschiibrownii
Summary: Maia, the current incarnation of the Avatar spirit in our modern world, discovers her abilities and works to bring a lost culture and art back to a world run by Equalists who imprison or kill conscious benders. However, will one Avatar be enough to erase many years worth of lies? AU, in which Avatar Korra fell and the Equalist regime succeeded.
1. Introduction

_Revive: An Avatar: The Last Airbender Fanfiction_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, no matter how many times I try to sue for the rights and my lawyer just laughs in my face.**

**Introduction**

I suppose recording the events of the past several years isn't such a terrible idea in its entirety, but right now, it's annoying as hell.

Emmett's probably right about the whole thing needing to be recorded and distributed, but quite honestly, I just don't know if I have it in me to write down everything that's happened in my life starting a couple years ago. I'm not patient, or good with words like he is, but when I suggested that he write out our entire chronicle, he said that I had to be the one to write it because it was really about me.

Well, this entire mess involves Emmett too, but even when I told him that he wouldn't budge. And now, even as I'm writing this, _he won't leave me alone_. Yes, Em, I know you're reading over my shoulder. Go find a way to make yourself useful, although for you it might be kind of difficult. You're pretty much useless overall.

Yeah, shut up. You know I don't mean it- at least not 100%. Anyways, I guess I should probably stop wasting your time and just begin. If anyone actually reads this, I don't want to bore them to tears by spending the entire narration insulting Emmett. As fun as it is- Shut up, Em- I'll just get to the point. Introductions would be a good place to start.

My name is Maia, and I'm fifteen years old. I'm from Lincoln, Nebraska, and before you ask, no, I'm not some hick that walks around with a thing of wheat stuck in her mouth. Lincoln is actually a pretty big city, and a college town to boot. Emmett's sixteen, but only really four months older than me. However, it is a plus that he's of driving age now because we can (sort of) drive legally. Not that every single thing we do is legal, but it's nice to know that if we were caught driving, we wouldn't be in as deep trouble as we would be if he didn't have a somewhat legitimate license along with finally starting to look his age. But I guess discussing Emmett's recently grown out of baby face isn't really important to the story, so I'll move on to bigger and better things. You see, my story begins quite a while back, before I was even born or anyone even dreamed of my generation's existence. I know it's cheesy, and kind of incredulous, but you'll have to bear with me.

Long ago, the world was divided not into seven continents and many countries included within them, but rather four different nations: the Fire Nation, the Earth Kingdom, the Northern and Southern Water Tribes, and the Air Nomads. Certain people in each nation were "benders". They possessed the ability to control, or bend, the element of their respective nation. Bending was a sacred art, and was well respected until things slowly began to change. We'll discuss that later though.

One person in the entire world was given the ability to not bend just one element but rather all four, destined to become a master of water, fire, earth, and air. This individual was called the Avatar, and they were tasked with keeping the world in a state of balance and peace. The Avatar was a reincarnated spirit, and at the end of one Avatar's life, the spirit was reincarnated into the next nation in the cycle. The Avatar also had phenomenal cosmic powers, and was able to access the power of all of their past lives in order to perform feats of inhuman proportions.

However, the balance of the world began to tip and crumble, and even the Avatar wasn't able to stop the crash. Certain non-benders began to feel oppressed by their bending counterparts, some of which, but not the majority, were becoming corrupt and drunk with power. The current Avatar of the time, Avatar Korra, and many others worked during this dark time to try and stop this movement, but it gained too much momentum and eventually succeeded as Avatar Korra fell. Since then, the non-bending group that was the backbone of the revolution called the Equalists have worked to fade bending out of society and memory as well as much of the legend and lore of the four nations and their respective cultures and disciplines. Bending still exists, however, but those with the gift don't know that they possess it, or if they find that they can make a certain element do things that shouldn't be possible, they dismiss it as a coincidence or hallucination. When raised under the pretense that things aren't possible, one believes that when it happens, it isn't real. In the rare case that someone fully realizes that they have control over an element, they are almost inevitably found and either imprisoned or killed depending on their aptitude. Such is the way of the Equalists. Under their rule, the world morphed into what it is today. You don't see them, but they're there, in the shadows trying to prevent bending from reappearing in society and to keep "equality", although their version of it is really nothing of the sort.

Just as the benders do, the Avatar still exists, but the case is still the same. Often, the chosen one never becomes aware of their own power, and the spirit simply reincarnates into the next element in the cycle. Even though the four elemental nations have since been broken apart, the cycle still continues by each Avatar being born into the next element. Their geographical location is irrelevant. This makes it all the more difficult for the Equalists to find the new reborn Avatar, but they almost never fail. They monitor them for their whole lives, making sure they never realize their power, and if they do, they're either imprisoned or killed depending on how powerful they've become. If they've become too dangerous to keep imprisoned, they are executed on spot, without any warning or chance to retaliate. The Equalists have succeeded in this quest thus far, and there hasn't been a fully realized Avatar since the time or Avatar Korra.

That's where I come in. You see… I'm kind of the Avatar.

…Erm…

You see, Em! It still sounds ridiculous. No one's going to believe this when they read it, especially after I told them all of that. I know all of you readers probably think I'm a delusional freak by now between the impromptu history lesson and declaration, but I swear by the sun that I'm not crazy. I _am_ the Avatar, and as much as it doesn't make sense, as dumb as it sounds, I'm telling nothing but the truth. I've been fighting the Equalists for over a year now, and I'm pretty sure that I haven't been hallucinating the entire time.

I can sort of provide some support to my claim though. You might've heard about some weird things _somewhere_ about evidence of fights that no one saw, areas or towns that look like a tornado went though them when there was no storm, or perhaps rumors of strange feats that no one can really explain. These rumors are kind of hard to come by, since the Equalists are pretty good at keeping things hidden, but information gets around, and a news crew will occasionally report on something that they don't even know exactly what it is before it can be covered up. These instances are kind of what happen as I try to embark on my journey, and as I tried my hardest not to be overcome by the Equalists that were trying to kill me.

Fun stuff.

But anyways, even if you don't believe me at this point, I still suggest reading through this if I ever manage to finish it. Who knows, I might convince you along the way, or heck, I might even amuse you. I've done a lot of pretty stupid things during my journey/quest/thing, and according to Emmett they're pretty hilarious to watch, as long as they're not the stupid things that almost get us killed. That's a whole other matter. And even if you don't believe me or find my antics even mildly amusing, perhaps you'll learn something worthwhile in this thing, or else I'm just going to stop writing right now. There wouldn't be any point in continuing writing it, because I'm certainly not detailing everything out for my own pleasure.

I'll warn you though, things get a little wacky along the way. If you're one of the skeptics, you probably won't believe a lot of it. If it hadn't happened to me, I probably wouldn't have either. I'm not going to back down on what I say though, because quite frankly, as I just said this happened to me and I don't want to step out because a couple of hecklers are criticizing me. I promise though, that this chronicle will be nothing but the truth. I'm not going to say that Emmett is an attractive male specimen that makes me swoon and sway every time he catches my eye, because one, it's nowhere near the truth, and two, I don't want to unwittingly create him his own fangirl base, because that's certainly something that he doesn't deserve.

Okay, I should probably stop making jokes at his expense, because he's going to be proofreading this later and I'm going to get my butt kicked. The point of this whole thing it to get the truth out and help restore the world to what it was, with bending not suppressed and _true_ equality everywhere. I'm not going to exaggerate things and blow them out of proportion, because beside the fact that the process of doing to requires actual cognitive effort and creative ability I also don't want to discredit myself. Once enough people start believing me, things will start catching on. People need to know what could've been, and what can still be if we re-incorporate bending back into our lives. We have the right to our history and to our lost arts, and we should all be fighting to regain it back. _That's_ why, even though I'm not going to exactly enjoy it, Emmett's right in the fact that this needs to be written, because people can't fight for what they don't believe in or what they don't even know exists.

I guess, in conclusion, if you've managed to pull through this painful introduction, congratulations. I can't control if you keep reading though, and that's up to you. Just remember what I've said. This could change our entire lives as we know it, and don't think that you can't make a difference. Just you knowing tips the balance a little bit more in our favor. The more who know, the less advantage the Equalists have. If you really care, I'll see you around. If not, well, you'll probably be hearing of my soon anyways by other means.

-Avatar Maia

**A/N: Okay, I know that was a little cheesy, but this little plot bunny crept into my head the other night, and I've been itching to write it. This was just the best way I could think of to expose some of the premise and introduce a couple characters. As you've probably inferred, this story is about a modern day Avatar and how she goes on her journey to become a fully realized bender in all four disciplines and restore the lost art of bending to the world. **

** One of the important details is that neither of the television shows that this entire fic is based off of exist in this version of our world. I know that might sound weird, but that's how is going to go down :) It always seems that people who get stuck in the Avatar world or are a modern day bender know about the entire Avatarverse from the TV show, and sometimes that can lead to Mary Sues except in some cases. That's mainly what I'm trying to avoid in this fic. Please inform me at once of any emerging Sue traits.**

** Think of this chapter as a pilot of sorts. If people like it and want to read more, I'll keep writing. I just want to see if someone will bite the idea and think it could actually go somewhere :D Thanks for reading the introduction to **_**Revive **_**as well as this extremely long author's note :) Reviews are always appreciated. Even a story alert or favorite is good just to know that there is interest in the story. Thanks for your time!**

** ~haaschiibrownii (I'm going to change this username soon because it's just getting a little old. If anyone has any ideas, they're much appreciated. I can't seem to think of a good one :P)**


	2. Chapter One

_Revive: An Avatar: The Last Airbender Fanfiction_

**Chapter One**

The most infuriating part is that it all began with a sneeze.

It was a Monday. I know it's cliché, but Mondays are truly the worst days of the week. I'm nowhere near a morning person, so my alarm on a Monday after sleeping in all weekend is like the devil personally giving me a wake up call. This Monday was no different from the rest except for the fact that it was even worse than usual. After a weekend of trying to get over a persistent runny nose and sore throat, I had hoped that the beginnings of what I knew was going to be a kick-your-butt kind of cold would just disappear. You see, when I get colds, I don't just get them. I really _get_ them. It seems as if my coughs and sneezes are some of the worst ever. I've been bedridden for days with only a simple cold to answer to. I was hoping that this cold, which I had seen coming over the course of the weekend, would simply slip away since I hadn't had the first sneeze yet. You know that a cold's there to stay once you start sneezing, but if you haven't began yet, there's still hope for your poor nearly forsaken soul.

At this point, however, I wasn't so lucky. I rubbed my nose once again with a Kleenex, trying to keep-for lack of a better word- snot from running out of my nose and making me look worse than I was sure that I already did. I hadn't gotten much sleep last night, and my eyes were red and irritated, my nose constantly running, my hair thrown up into a messy ponytail (and not the apparently fashionable kind), and I was wearing my comfiest pair of sweats and a old t-shirt from middle school. I usually tried to keep myself somewhat presentable, but today I arrived at school looking harried and unkempt. I really didn't care due to my current condition, however, so it wasn't that big of a deal. Looking back though, I guess I kind of wish that on one of the biggest days of my life, I would've been dressed in something, I don't know… well, something a little bit more important or presentable, something like as suit, or maybe a fancy dress (not that I even own either of those). I really had no idea about what was going to happen, but I feel like it wasn't really fitting to be wearing old sweats and a t-shirt while it did.

I pulled out my math book and put it into my arms, awkwardly shifting my box of ultra-soft Kleenex that I had brought from home. The school tissues were cheap and rough, and none of the teachers actually really had any in their classrooms anyways. It always felt like they were perpetually out of them, not that anyone really wanted to use them in the first place. In any case, I never settled for less than my Kleenex from home. They were strong as well, and could withstand my sneezes of momentous proportions. The school tissues broke apart at the smallest _ah-choo_. There was no way that I would sink to that level. Yeah, I know I sound really stuck up at this point, but it's about _Kleenex_, for god's sake. Does it really matter?

…Okay, yes it does. But I digress.

I was on my way to lunch anyway, so I didn't really need to be anywhere at anytime until my 6th hour class started. I decided to head into the bathroom and clean up, and see if I could, I don't know, splash some water in my face or something to try to get rid of the about-to-sneeze feeling that I had been getting for the past twenty minutes. Groggily, I set bundle of stuff on the shelf below the mirror and threw my backpack down on the ground. Everyone was at lunch, and the cafeteria was at the other end of the school, so no one was going to be down in this bathroom anyways. I didn't really care where my stuff went. Not knowing exactly what I was going to do, I pulled out my ponytail and redid it, combing several loose strands of hair out of my face in the process. I moved over to the sink and splashed a little water in my face. Much to my surprise, it made my face wet.

Well, what did _you_ expect?

Oh yeah, I forgot you can't really _read_ sarcasm. Well, go re-read that sentence sarcastically.

After biting my lip and wondering why I really came here in the first place, I felt it again. I squeezed my eyes shut as hard as I could, and took in deep breaths to try and satisfy the urge. I had found that taking deep breaths when you feel like you're about to sneeze sometimes helps to prevent it, and I certainly wasn't going to let my body give in and admit that I had caught a cold. It wasn't official until the first sneeze, so if I didn't sneeze it would go away. That was my reasoning, at least. I held my breath (metaphorically of course; I was still taking the deep breaths), and for a moment, I felt it go away. I sighed and relaxed my face, thinking that I had dodged the proverbial bullet. Instead, the moment after I let my guard down, the feeling returned with a vengeance, and I knew there was no way that I could avoid it, so I simply braced myself.

And then I sneezed and flew into the back wall.

_What the hell?_

I slid down to the ground rubbing my head from where it had impacted the hard tile. I felt like I had just hit a brick wall (It was tile, so truthfully it wasn't very far off), and was left dazed and confused. What had just happened? I mean, yeah, I knew the sneeze was going to be powerful, but not THAT powerful… No one sneezes and gets shot up through the air. I must've tripped or something. That had to be it. One does not simply get airborne by a sneeze.

I shook my head, still slightly disoriented. Even though it must've been a fluke, I still… _felt_ something. Power. Beneath the surface, and subdued, but power nonetheless. Almost as if I could feel something stirring within in me, something dying to break free… I shook my head, trying to clear the thoughts out. This was all a fluke. A coincidence, and these things that I was feeling was a cold induced hallucination, or something of the sort.

I tried to push the thoughts out of my head, picking up my backpack and leaving the deserted bathroom. I had other things to worry about, namely how I was going to get rid of this cold before the cross-country meet coming up. I had been training all summer for this upcoming season, and I didn't want to blow the first meet of the season. That'd put me way down on the pecking order for future meets, and I didn't want to be any farther down than I was already as a first year varsity member. I bit my lip, my mind having already moved on from my explosive sneeze to other things.

Little did I know that sooner than I expected, I was going to have much bigger fish to fry.

That night, I dreamed.

It's not like I've never dreamed before, but I haven't really ever dreamed like _this_. My dreams before were usually pointless, and without any true meaning that I could ever discern, much less remember after the first ten minutes post waking up. However, every second of this dream was etched into my memory from the moment it begun. I couldn't have forgotten it if I tried.

It began with hundreds of statues, all regal looking with glowing eyes that lit up the dark tones of the dream. Something with these statues resonated within me, pulling me closer and closer, forcing my feet forward until I was toe to toe with the last one in the infinite row. It was a girl, muscular and tough, with twin ponytails on the sides of her faces and one large ponytail in the pack. She looked vaguely familiar, as if I should know her, but before I could place the face, my dream changed.

I was flying through the air through a blood red sky, surrounded by a sphere of what felt to me as pure energy, but appeared as a sphere of air, and streams of earth water, and fire circling around me with fervor. There was a feeling of togetherness, and a deep, underlying river of power that I had full access too. I felt like a god.

The dream shifted.

I was kneeling on the ground, unable to move my body because it wasn't responding to me. The room was dark and foreboding, and was such a change from the energy that I felt just moments before. A finger was placed on my forehead, and fear and dread ran through my body, but I didn't know what I feared. It was just there. Suddenly, the fear was ripped away by a heavy feeling of loss and defeat, an empty space in my mind if you will. I fell to the ground, unable to move with shock. Suddenly everything felt hopeless and bleak. I had lost everything.

Then came the final shift in my dream sequence. I was standing in my own bedroom, and I felt the soft carpet beneath my feet. The mirror stood in front of me, and I looked up inadvertently as a reflex, expecting to see my reflection just as before. However, I saw a face that was mine, but also not mine in a way, with glowing eyes and a face devoid of every emotion besides determination. Wind swirled around me, lifting the papers off of my desk and set the curtains into a frenzy, turning my entire bedroom into a maelstrom. Once again, and for the last time that night, I felt that sense of power; underlying, but deep and unending.

I woke up.

Immediately, I sat up and turned on my light, expecting to see my room in a state of total dysfunction. Instead it was just as I left it when I was going to bed, with all of my school papers still on my desk and the curtains just barely flapping as the night breeze blew through them via the open window. I took a deep breath, and laid back down, running a hand through my hair as I did. That was definitely, bar none, the weirdest dream I had ever had. The worst part? I felt as if it actually meant something, rather than just your average dream. Those kinds of dreams, you could go through a guide book or whatever and see what the fact that you accidentally left your boots at home when going snowboarding meant and try to squeeze a meaning out of them, but this one… this one felt so _clear cut_, so _simple_, and that I was an idiot for not realizing what my subconscious was trying to tell me.

The feelings left by the dream were still there as well. I shivered under my blankets as I remembered the loss and empty hole that was left after the third part of my dream. It was as if half of me was just… gone. Pushing the clearer than it should be memory out of my head, I realized that I still felt that power, albeit not so vividly as I had in my dream, but still there running beneath the surface.

With a shock, I remembered the same feeling when I sneezed. Still though, no one feels power when they _sneeze_. It pretty much would've been the stupidest thing to ever happen to me. Still though, it did. I bit my lip, probing it with my mind. I felt, it but I couldn't draw it out as freely as it had been flowing in my dream. What could I do to trigger it?

_Sneeze_, the little voice in the back of my head whispered. I frowned. There was no way I was going to call on some phenomenal cosmic power (that probably didn't exist in the first place) by sneezing. However, it was really the only way I could think of… It just didn't feel dignified. Maybe if I simulated something like sneezing, it would have the same effect.

I made contact with the power once again, then took a deep breath. I closed my eyes, and then exhaled as hard as I could. I heard a large amount of fluttering and shuffling and opened my eyes to see the large stack of papers that had previously been on my desk falling to the ground. My eyes widened. There was no way… but it had just happened, and part of me was starting believe that I had made it happen. I sat up in bed and leaned against the wall. This was the kind of stuff that happened in movies or TV shows, minus the experiment gone wrong or the radioactive spider bite.

I groaned and slammed back onto my bed, taking time to actually look at the clock for the first time since I had woken up. The display was winking 3:12. I sighed. I was not going to deal with this right now, and if I was lucky I'd wake up in the morning and it _all_ would've been a dream. I snuggled into my pillow and closed my eyes, hoping that I'd fall asleep quickly and just forget about all of it, as cool as it was. I didn't want to have any responsibility that came with weird powers or anything. I already had enough on my plate.

I fell asleep quickly, and when I woke up I felt normal and like myself again. I ate a bowl of Lucky Charms and went to school and had a perfectly normal day. Then I grew up, went to college, met a guy, got married, and had fourteen kids. I forgot all about that weird dream and the events that followed that night. Life moved on.

Not really. I went to school that day, and for several days after that, but the new power I had discovered didn't go away. In fact, things started happening without me consciously trying to make them happen. And then, everything went haywire and my life got flipped upside down.

However, we'll get to that later.

**A/N: This chapter was difficult to write. For some reason, I just felt like I couldn't get it right. However, this is probably the best that it's going to get, so I'm going to leave it here and just post it. I hope you all enjoy it, and please remember that reviews and criticism are always appreciated, but they're not necessary. It's cool enough that you even read my story. However, I do like knowing what everyone thinks so I can try to do better in the future. I hope you're all having a good summer!**


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